New regulations have been imposed to prevent people from waiting in line for hours at health centres in Bahrain just to skip work.

Patients will only be able to enter public medical facilities if they have booked appointments in advance, and will no longer be allowed to sit in the waiting areas to see a doctor, said a report in the Gulf Daily News (GDN), our sister publication.

Health Ministry health centre director Sima Zainal said the rule, which came into effect on Monday (January 19), was taken to curb public misuse of medical appointments.

"We have come up with this decision to stick to appointment schedules for patients mainly to avoid people using visits to health centres to skip work," she told the GDN.

"Many people often visit health centres and are willing to wait for long hours just to secure a medical certificate to give to their employers.

"In many cases we find that these people are fit to be present at work while they spend hours waiting at the health centre, which is not the right thing to do.

"Employers can now refer back to appointment schedules, which the patient can get from the health centre, to confirm the employee's time of absence from work.

"Another reason for this decision is to help reduce the rush and long queues at health centres.

"To avoid all these issues, we have decided that health centres will strictly stick to appointment schedules - patients can either walk in or call for an appointment.

"They are required to be present at the health centre 10 to 15 minutes ahead of the appointment time and are expected to bear with us in case of emergencies, for example if the doctor has an emergency at the time given to them, then their appointment may be delayed by 10 to 15 minutes.

"If in case the doctors are free then patients could get an immediate appointment as they walk in as well."

However, Zainal stressed that emergency cases would be dealt with immediately and such patients did not require appointments.

"In case of emergencies, the patient will be sent to a triage and depending on the level of emergency, doctors will attend to the cases," she said.

"Printed guidelines detailing these rules were circulated in all health centres on Monday and the decision has been in effect from the same day." - TradeArabia News Service